Monthly Archives: January 2020

Through recent polls, the Zcash community approved mining payout changes that will take effect at the coinâ€™s halving in November. A recent poll revealed community support for Zcash mining reward changes, which will take effect in November 2020. With the Zcash Founder’s Reward terminating in November, the privacy asset’s mining situation has come into question, a blog post from one of the project’s supporters, Electric Coin Company, or ECC, said on Jan. 28. Community votes in new specs Using a bevy of avenues, including Telegram and Twitter, […]

Previously touted as the holy grail of Ethereum scalability, Plasmaâ€™s significant weaknesses appear to have made the developers quietly drop the technology. In a Jan. 27 post, Dragonfly Research proclaimed Plasma to be dead, noting that the Ethereum (ETH) community is converging on Optimistic Rollup, despite initial enthusiasm. The news comes in stark contrast to earlier claims by Plasma Group arguing that the technology was moving into production phase. The history of Plasma The original paper detailing the Plasma proposal was published in August 2017. In essence, […]

Coinbase hires former Google Shopping Vice President of Product Surojit Chatterjee as its new chief product officer. Former Google executive Surojit Chatterjee has joined Coinbase as the company’s new chief product officer. Before joining Coinbase, Chatterjee worked as a Google’s vice president of product, tallying 11 years at the internet company, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in a Jan. 29 blog post announcing the hire. An experienced hire During his time at Google, Chatterjee headed up the internet giant’s shopping branch. Prior to Google, Chatterjee served at […]

Ex-Cambridge Analytica executive Brittany Kaiser discusses issues of global data protection crisis in an interview with Cointelegraph. Blockchain technology is an important tool in addressing the data protection crisis, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser believes. Kaiser, a former business development director at controversial British data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, has discussed global data privacy issues in an interview with Cointelegraph on Jan. 23. Currently serving as co-founder at digital intelligence startup Own Your Data Foundation, Kaiser first came into the spotlight during the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which […]

Andreas Antonopoulos has filed an affidavit with a New York court in support of a firm looking to spearhead the class action against Bitfinex over 2017 BTC price manipulation. One of the biggest names in crypto has joined in an ongoing argument about who will lead the class-action suit against Bitfinex and its affiliates over alleged market manipulation leading to Bitcoin’s 2017 bull run. Antonopoulos’s affidavit Amid a flurry of filings seeking to lead the class, Andreas Antonopoulos has come out in support of the legal team […]

All you need to know for Crypto Tax Season 2020: new guidance, rules, nuances. Be ready to inform the IRS about your crypto. It’s here! The United States tax season officially started on Jan. 27, and this time, crypto tax is in the spotlight. Following developments that culminated in the Internal Revenue Service publishing new guidance in October 2019, the bureau has begun to invest efforts in cryptocurrency tax reporting and investigation and is expecting to see an increase in crypto tax reports. Those who intend to […]

BCB Group, a British crypto firm that provides services to exchanges like Coinbase and Bitstamp, is now officially approved by U.K. financial watchdog, the FCA. BCB Group, a European crypto-focused payment processor for the likes of major global crypto firms like Coinbase, has secured a license from British regulators. The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has officially approved the firm’s core subsidiary, BCB Payments, as an authorized payment institution (API), BCB Group announced on Jan. 29. The company is now officially regulated both in the U.K. […]

Young Bitcoin millionaire Erik Finman said Bitcoin has changed since 2011, and not in a good way. A millionaire by age 18, early Bitcoin (BTC) investor Erik Finman said the environment around Bitcoin has significantly changed since 2011 — and not for the better. “It just ain’t what it used to be,” Finman told Cointelegraph in a message on Jan. 26, 2020. Recounting the early days, Finman explained: “Bitcoin, when it first came out, was incredible. It wasn’t just cutting edge technology – it was bleeding edge! […]

Darknet market activity hit new highs in 2019, as shown in a new report from blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis. Despite concerted attempts from law enforcement (LE) to crack down on darknet markets (DNMs), coupled with several exit scams, crypto inflows and outflows surpassed $800 million last year. Also read: Monopoly Is a Tiny Darknet Market With Big Aspirations Darknet Markets Are Recession-Proof “What two businesses have traditionally been recession proof since time immemorial?” asks Tony Soprano in an episode of the American crime drama. “Certain aspects of […]

Bitcoin and a few other altcoins have broken above their 200-day SMA, which indicates the possibility of the start of a new uptrend. Japanese consulting firm Nomura Research Institute, which is an affiliate of financial services giant Nomura Holdings, has launched a tradable cryptocurrency index in partnership with cryptocurrency investment solution provider Intelligence Unit. The index, which is meant for financial institutions, will track a basket of cryptocurrencies and can be traded in US dollars and yen. Though several financial companies have launched services for institutional investors, […]